Paris: Zinedine Zidane has played down talk of a crisis at Real Madrid, despite the European champions’ recent run of poor results.

“There is no crisis. We are just going through a patch that is a bit delicate but there is nothing to worry about,” the France playmaker was quoted as saying by the French sports daily L’Equipe on Tuesday.

Real lost 0-2 at Racing Santander in Spanish first division 10 days ago, drew 2-2 at home to AEK Athens in the Champions League last Tuesday and were then held 1-1 at home by Villarreal in the Spanish League on Saturday.

Real have not won outside the Bernabeu in the Spanish league since beating Sevilla in March. “We have to do something about that. Maybe, we should change our away shirt because the black one we are wearing has not brought us very good results so far,” he said.

“I’m not superstitious but I’m beginning to think that it could be different with our traditional white jersey.”

St John’s: The Bangladesh Cricket Board has switched the venues for the two Tests between their national side and West Indies next month, the WICB said on Monday. Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Stadium will now host the first Test from December 8 to 12 and Chittagong’s MA Aziz Stadium will stage the second and final Test from December 16 to 20. Chittagong was due to host the first Test and Dhaka the second. “The change became necessary to accommodate Victory Day celebrations in Dhaka on December 16,” said Michael Hall, chief cricket operations officer of the WICB.

London: The English Football Association (FA) has asked to see the video of a clash between Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp and Blackburn Rovers defender Nils-Eric Johansson in Saturday’s Premier League match at Highbury.

Television replays showed Bergkamp stepping on the grounded Swede after a tangle during Arsenal’s 1-2 defeat, their third successive loss. The incident was missed by referee Graham Barber, opening the way for the FA’s video evidence panel to act.

Sydney: An Aus tralian couple, cleared on charges of stalking Ian Thorpe, were ordered by a Sydney court on Tuesday to keep away from the Olympic swimming champion. The court instructed the couple to steer clear of Thorpe and the suburban pool where he trains, after the more serious stalking charges were dropped, local media reported.